Unite your strengths in harmony, and with curiosity, welcome the treasures of wisdom that arise.
From
45
Gathering Together
To
4
Youthful Folly
One thinks having rescued those who needed it. taoscopy.com
Gathering Together45
Coming together for a shared purpose; unity and collective effort lead to strength. It's time to rally support and focus on communal goals.
↓ Line 2
Being open to influence and guidance leads to good fortune. Sincerity in small gestures can have a positive impact.
↓ Line 4
This line indicates a time of great success and prosperity, free from any fault or blame.
↓ Line 5
Holding a position of influence requires responsibility. Perseverance and sincerity are needed to bring others into alignment and remove any regrets.
↓ Line 6
There may be sorrow or emotional release, but it is a natural process and carries no fault.
↓ Youthful Folly4
Seek guidance and be open to learning. Embrace mistakes as opportunities for growth.
Other titles: Gathering Together, Massing, The Symbol of Gathering into One, Assembling, Congregation, Gathering, Unity, Accord, Making Whole, Focusing, Marshalling One's Forces, Clustering, Finished
Judgment
Legge: When forces are gathering, the King goes to his ancestral temple. For successful progress, maintain firm correctness and see the great man. A large sacrifice brings good fortune -- proceed toward your destination.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Gathering Together . Success. The king approaches his temple. It furthers one to see the great man. This brings success. Perseverance furthers. To bring great offerings creates good fortune. It furthers one to undertake something.
Blofeld: Gathering Together -- success! The King approaches the temple. It is advisable to see a great man, which will ensure success. Persistence in a righteous course brings reward. Great sacrifices are offered -- good fortune! [These were religious sacrifices, but they may be taken to mean that the time has come for us to make important sacrifices of another sort.] It is favorable to have in view a goal (or destination).
Liu:Gathering. Success. The king attends the temple. It is of benefit to see the great man; this leads to success. Continuance benefits. Offering a great sacrifice leads to good fortune. It benefits one to go somewhere.
Ritsema/Karcher:Clustering, Growing. The king imagines possessing a temple. Harvesting: visualizing Great People. Growing. Harvesting Trial. Availing-of the great: sacrificial-victims significant. Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of collecting and assembling. It emphasizes that bringing people and things together through a common feeling or goal is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Finished: The king enters into the temple; beneficial to see the great man; receipt; beneficial to determine. Using the great animal offering is auspicious; beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1): Gathering is developmental. The king comes to have a shrine. It is beneficial to see a great person; this is developmental. It is beneficial to be correct. It is good to make a great sacrifice. It is beneficial to go somewhere.
Cleary (2):Gathering is successful. The king goes to his shrine. It is beneficial to see a great person; this leads to success, etc.
Wu: Congregation indicates that the king comes to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous to see the great man. There will be pervasion, if persevering. It will be auspicious to use big sacrificial animals in the offerings. It will be good to have undertakings.
The Image
Legge: A marsh above the earth -- the image of Contraction. The superior man, in accordance with this, assembles his weapons in readiness for unseen contingencies.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Over the earth, the lake: the image of Gathering Together. Thus the superior man renews his weapons in order to meet the unforeseen.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a marshy lake rising above the earth. The Superior Man gathers together his weapons in order to provide against the unforeseen. [This is a time when foresight is required of us, too.]
Liu: The lake on the earth symbolizes Gathering. The superior man keeps his weapons prepared to meet the unexpected.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh with-respect-to earth. Clustering. A chun tzu uses eliminating arms to implement. A chun tzu uses warning, not precautions.
Cleary (1): Moisture rises onto the earth, gathering. Thus do superior people prepare weapons to guard against the unexpected. [When practitioners of the Tao get to where the five elements are assembled and have been returned to the source, when everything acquired is obedient to their will, if they do not know how to prevent danger and take perils into consideration, eventually what has been gathered will again disperse, and they will not be able to avoid the trouble of losing what has been gained… “Weapons” means the tools of wisdom, the work of silent operation of spiritual awareness. When the primordial has been congealed, it is not subject to injury by acquired conditioning, but it is still necessary to dissolve the influence of personal history before nature and life can be stabilized. If there is any remaining contamination, eventually conditioning will reassert itself and the primordial will again become fragmented. Therefore the work of guarding is indispensable.]
Wu: The marsh is above the earth; this is Congregation . Thus the jun zi causes the nation to be armed in preparation for contingencies.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Contraction shows massing for union through Cheerfulness and Obedience. The dynamic line is responded to in his ruling central place, hence the idea of union. With the utmost piety the king presents his offerings to the spirits in his ancestral temple. Union with the great man is effected through correctness. The law of heaven demands a sacrifice. Contemplation of the way forces are gathered shows us the way of heaven, earth and all of nature.
Legge:Contractionmeans collecting together, or things so collected. The hexagram deals with the union between the ruler and his ministers -- between high and low in the kingdom. This state is to be preserved through the influence of religion and the great man, who is a kind of philosopher king who meets the spirits of his ancestors in the temple. Whatever he does will succeed because he is correct and right, and his great sacrifices are in harmony with the times.
The two trigrams represent Docility and Cheerfulness. The dynamic fifth line has his proper magnetic correlate in line two -- which gives the idea of union. Ch'eng-tzu says that the ordinances of heaven are simply the natural and practical outcome of heavenly principle.
A marsh above the earth must be kept in by dykes -- so the Contraction must be preserved by precautionary measures, the chief of which is to be prepared to resist attack from without, and to quell internal rebellion.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Forces are assembling for integration -- focus inward, sacrifice your autonomy and allow the Self to guide the Work.
The Superior Man pulls himself together to face the unknown and preserve the Work. “Forewarned is forearmed.”
Psychologically, Contraction depicts a time when inner components of the psyche assemble for recombination into a new pattern. It is significant that this is the time when “the king goes to his ancestral temple.” That is, the governing intelligence turns toward the template or ideal image of the Work as it exists in its consummate state. (See commentary on hexagram number fifty-nine, Expansion, for further discussion of the symbolism of the ancestral temple.) If the gathering forces integrate in conformity with this archetype, the Work is thereby advanced.
He, therefore, who perceives himself to associate with God, will have himself the similitude of Him. And if he passes from himself as an image to the archetype, he will then have the end of his progression. Plotinus
In addition to being a gestalt of future perfection, the temple is the home of the ancestors: a karmic repository of all that has gone into the Work via the will and intent of former historical ego-personalities. This archetype of "the ancestors" is described by the Lakota shaman, Black Elk, in his Great Vision. Note that the "grandfathers and grandmothers" are present when the people are "walking in a sacred manner" -- i.e., conforming to the ideal archetypal pattern of the Work:
But I was not the last; for when I looked behind me there were ghosts of people like a trailing fog as far as I could see -- grandfathers of grandfathers and grandmothers of grandmothers without number. And over these a great Voice -- the Voice that was the South -- lived, and I could feel it silent. And as we went the Voice behind me said: "Behold a good nation walking in a sacred manner in a good land!"
The Ancestral Temple then, symbolizes the Work in progress as it exists outside of temporal awareness. At death the karmic complexes of the psyche, released from their spacetime ego-body, assume new configurations in hyperspace in accordance with the accomplishments of the just completed lifetime. Ideally, the ancestors and their heirs (choices and their consequences) within the Ancestral Temple undergo purification: this is what Individuation (the Work) is all about.
At the end of the dying process consciousness divides into the consciousness of one's parents and one’s children, and then it moves through these modalities, and then divides again. It's moving forward into the future through the people who come after you, and backward into the past through your ancestors. Terence McKenna --The Archaic Revival
In the multidimensional realms "beyond" our material world, time does not exist. In some way unimaginable to us, past, present and future are consolidated into an eternal Here and Now. Thus our choices in spacetime can have consequences in hyperspace which are inconceivable to us in the current situation. So if the Self (as manifested in the oracle) often seems to be tyrannically unreasonable, it is arguably because of the ego's dimensional myopia.
The Spirit ... may know the most violent love and hatred possible, for it can see the remote consequences of the most trivial acts of the living, provided those consequences are part of its future life. In trying to prevent them it may become one of those frustrators dreaded by certain spirit mediums. It cannot, however, without ... assistance ... affect life in any way except to delay its own rebirth. With that assistance it can so shape circumstances as to make possible the rebirth of a unique nature. W. B. Yeats --A Vision
Such conceptions of cause and effect seem irrational to ordinary awareness, yet quantum physicists hypothesize future events which affect the present as well as the past. The idea is not a new one:
Indeed, the hero of Hebrew myth is not only profoundly influenced by the deeds, words and thoughts of his forebears, and aware of his own profound influence on the fate of his descendants; he is equally influenced by the behavior of his descendants and influences that of his ancestors. Thus King Jeroboam set up a golden calf in Dan, and this sinful act sapped the strength of Abraham when he pursued his enemies into the same district a thousand years previously. Graves and Patai --Hebrew Myths
Should the ego's choices and their consequences not conform to the Self's intent, a rather cancerous growth is implied in which dynamic and magnetic forces are improperly consolidated -- in I Chingterms, dynamic and magnetic are mismatched. Through this "infidelity" of correlates the Work is thus adulterated and falls short of the archetypal ideal.
That the greatest effects come from the smallest causes has become patently clear not only in physics but in the field of psychological research as well. How often in the critical moments of life everything hangs on what appears to be a mere nothing! Jung -- The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales
Contraction is a compression inward toward a center. Psychologically, this can be regarded as an integration of complexes. Once the implosion completes itself, it is implied that the growth cycle reverses itself to expand away from the center. (Cf., hexagram number fifty-nine, Expansion, in which the ancestral temple is also mentioned.) The following hexagram, Pushing Upward,is the inverse of this one, and depicts a similar upward expansion of energy.
The archetypal themes displayed here are those of Solve et coagula, Implosion-Explosion, Contraction-Expansion, Black Hole-White Hole, Day and Night of Brahma, etc.
Line 2
Legge: The second line, magnetic, shows its subject led forward by her correlate. There will be good fortune, and freedom from error. There is entire sincerity, and in that case even the small offerings of the vernal sacrifice are acceptable.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Letting oneself be drawn brings good fortune and remains blameless. If one is sincere, it furthers one to bring even a small offering.
Blofeld: Being drawn into something brings good fortune and no error is involved. Be confident and win advantage from making a sacrifice.
Liu: If you are introduced to something -- good fortune. No blame. If you are sincere, even a simple offering will be blessed.
Ritsema/Karcher: Protracting significant, without fault. Conforming, thereupon Harvesting availing-of-dedicating.
Shaughnessy: Extended auspiciousness; there is no trouble. Returning then beneficial to use the spring sacrifice.
Cleary (1): Drawing in brings good fortune; no blame. If one is sincere, it is beneficial to perform the spring ceremony.
Cleary (2): Drawing out is good and blameless. If trusted, it is beneficial to perform a ceremony.
Wu: Good fortune is introduced. There will be no error. With sincerity, he has the privilege of making offerings in the summer.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The virtue proper to her central place has not undergone any change. Wilhelm/Baynes: The middle is still unchanged. Blofeld: The constant nature of this line, which is central. Ritsema/Karcher: Centering, not-yet transforming indeed. Cleary (2): Balance has not changed. Wu: His central position has not changed.
Legge: Line two is in her proper place, and responds to the dynamic ruler in five, who encourages and helps her advance. She possesses the sincerity proper to her central position, and though able to offer only the sacrifice of spring, which is small compared to the summer and autumn sacrifices, it will be appreciated.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Secret forces are bringing compatible spirits together. If the man permits himself to be led by this ineffable attraction, good fortune will come his way. When deep friendships exist, formalities and elaborate preparations are not necessary.
Wing: You may feel mysteriously drawn to certain people or endeavors, although this may not be what you had planned for yourself. Give in to this impulse. Larger and invisible forces are at work here, and good fortune will come by submitting to them.
Anthony: We must not allow pride, pity or other emotions to cause us to structure how things are to work out ... We need not strive, but let ourself be drawn.
Editor: To be led forward by one's correlate, in this case the fifth line ruler, is to be guided by the Self. Cirlot, in his Dictionary of Symbols, says: "To sacrifice what is esteemed is to sacrifice oneself, and the spiritual energy thereby acquired is proportional to the importance of what is lost. All forms of suffering can be sacrificial, if fully and wholeheartedly sought and accepted." The line is an image of sacrificing one's ego interests to follow a superior guiding force.
Fear of self-sacrifice lurks deep in every ego, and this fear is often only the precariously controlled demand of the unconscious forces to burst out in full strength. No one who strives for selfhood (individuation) is spared this dangerous passage, for that which is feared also belongs to the wholeness of the self -- the sub- human, or supra-human, world of psychic "dominants" from which the ego originally emancipated itself with enormous effort, and then only partially, for the sake of a more or less illusory freedom. This liberation is certainly a very necessary and very heroic undertaking, but it represents nothing final: it is merely the creation of a subject, who, in order to find fulfillment, has still to be confronted by an object. Jung -- Commentary in the Tibetan Book of the Dead
A. Sacrifice your autonomy for the good of the whole.
B. Sacrifice to make a connection.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, dynamic, shows its subject in such a state that, if he is greatly fortunate, he will receive no blame.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Great good fortune. No blame. [This describes a man who gathers people around him in the name of his ruler. Since he is not striving for any special advantages for himself but is working unselfishly to bring about general unity, his work is crowned with success, and everything becomes as it should be.]
Blofeld: Great good fortune and no error!
Liu: Great good fortune. No blame. (But the position is not correct.) [Incorrect behavior breeds trouble.]
Ritsema/Karcher: The great significant, without fault.
Shaughnessy: Great auspiciousness; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Great fortune, no fault.
Cleary (2): If there is great good fortune, then there is no blame.
Wu: Great auspiciousness. No error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: His position is not the proper one to him. Wilhelm/Baynes: For the place demands nothing. [Footnote by C.F. Baynes: "The Chinese text reads literally, ‘The place is not correct.’ Wilhelm's translation follows suggestions of the Chinese commentators."]Blofeld: Because the line, though a firm one, is not in the ruling position. Ritsema/Karcher: Situation not appropriate indeed. Cleary (2): There is no blame only if there is great good fortune, because one is out of place. Wu: He is out of place.
Legge: Line four has his correlate in line one, and he is next to the ruler in line five. We may expect a good auspice for him. Because he is dynamic in a magnetic place caution is intimated.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man rallies the people to the country's service. This brings good fortune to himself, though he does not actively seek it.
Wing: In this position you gather with others to serve a larger goal. Such sacrifice will meet with personal success.
Anthony: Sometimes in striving for unity, we find it necessary to go alone, with our acts being misunderstood. However, because we work unselfishly to bring about general unity, our work is ultimately successful.
Editor: Note that this line (minus the Confucian commentary) is unambiguously favorable. Line four and the ruler above him are the only yang lines in the hexagram, and since the idea of the figure is the focusing of disparate forces for union, we can think of these parallel lines as the hexagram's "lenses," or focal points. Although dynamic in a magnetic place, if line four abides correctly all will be fortunate. This suggests a kind of passive virtue which attracts devotion, inspires emulation or draws higher energy into the situation without acting itself. A proper ego/Self relationship may be inferred from this. Liu, who usually does not translate the Confucian commentary, here includes it in parenthesis. In contrast to the other translators, his personal commentary is negative. Cleary’s Confucian commentary rationalizes the seeming anomaly.
I have come to know myself, and I have collected myself from everywhere, and I have not sown children to the Archon but have uprooted his roots and have collected the dispersed members, and I know thee who thou art: for I am of those from above. Epiphanius -- Panarion Haeresium 26. 13
A. You're sitting pretty: don't push your luck.
B. “Handsome is as handsome does."
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows the union of all under its subject in the place of dignity. There will be no error. If any have no confidence in him, let him see to it that his virtue is great, long-continued, and firmly correct, and all occasion for repentance will disappear.
Wilhelm/Baynes: If in gathering together one has position, this brings no blame. If there are some who are not yet sincerely in the work, sublime and enduring perseverance is needed. Then remorse disappears.
Blofeld: On account of his high position, he gathers people together -- no error! Yet he cannot secure the confidence of the people; therefore he should exalt his virtue and prolong his persistence so that he need no longer feel regret. [All this is said of a minister; applied to ourselves, it suggests that we need people's confidence now and should strive hard to deserve it.]
Liu: If one has position, people will gather. No blame. If he does not have the trust of all, he should perpetuate his magnanimity. Remorse will vanish.
Ritsema/Karcher: Clustering: possessing the situation. Without fault: in-no-way conforming. Spring, perpetual Trial. Repenting extinguished.
Shaughnessy: In finishing there is position; there is no trouble. It is not a return; prime permanent determination; regret is gone.
Cleary (1): Gathering, there is a state without fault. Not taking oneself seriously, if one is basically always correct, regret will disappear. [If one knows how to fill the belly and also empty the mind, practices non-doing and incubates the spiritual embryo, ever correct and undivided, using the natural true fire to melt away the residual mundanity of acquired conditioning, such a one is called a true human without taint – how could regret not vanish? This is gathering in the sense of incubating the spiritual embryo.]
Cleary (2): Gathering around the position, there is no blame. If those who are not loyal remain ever-faithful to their original commitment, regret vanishes. [If one just relies on one’s position and expects others to gather around, one’s aspiration is not yet glorious.]
Wu: He is in place in Congregation and in no error. But lacking the full confidence of his people, he should forever remain persevering to dispel regret. [ We may consider this [line] as an amendment to the judgment of the hexagram. An important ingredient of the congregation is moral authority. In its absence or lacking of it, the grandiose show is merely a fanfare. It makes no lasting impression on the people.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Although there is union in the place of dignity, his mind and aim have not yet been brilliantly displayed. Wilhelm/Baynes: If in gathering together one has only position, the will does not yet shine forth sufficiently. Blofeld: It is only on account of his high position that he is able to assemble the people; his will is not strong enough to achieve remarkable results from this. Ritsema/Karcher: Purpose not-yet shining indeed. Cleary (2): One’s aspiration is not yet glorious. Wu: His aspirations are not enlightening.
Legge: Line five is dynamic, central, and in his correct position. Through him there may be expected the full realization of the idea of the hexagram, though the fact that "his mind and aim have not yet been brilliantly displayed" indicates that some may even still not have confidence in him.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Although the people unite under the man's leadership, certain difficulties remain. His aims have not been clearly explained, and his thinking is beyond the comprehension of all. Some followers stay with him because of his influential position. If he remains steadfast in his virtues so far as practically possible, he will eventually dissipate these uncertainties.
Wing: The person in this position has a great deal of power and influence within the group. Many attach themselves to him because of this. He must further prove his virtues and qualities of leadership in order to gain the true confidence of the group. In doing so he can accomplish his aims.
Editor: Psychologically interpreted, the image depicts forces (unconscious complexes) assembling for integration. Conditions are less than optimum for complete transformation however, and a concentration of will and intent is required. The outcome may be dubious: if this is the only changing line, the new hexagram created is Enthusiasm, with a corresponding line portraying a chronic ailment. The ego’s concentration on the task at hand is not as strong as it could be. Sometimes (rarely perhaps) the line can depict a coerced concentration of energy needful to complete a specific task. It goes without saying that compulsory integrations seldom endure, yet when mandated by the Self, such expedience may be necessary. In its most negative sense, this can portray a "hostile takeover."
Separation into apparently dissimilar things, such as heaven, the elements, man, etc., was necessary only for the work of generation. Everything separated must be united again in the production of the [philosopher's] stone, so that the original state of unity shall be restored. But, says Dorn [an alchemist], "Thou wilt never make from others the One which thou seekest, except first there be made one thing of thyself." Jung -- Aion
A. You have gathered your forces, yet haven't gained full mastery over them. Unswerving devotion to the Work and refusal to yield to temptation should eventually bring success.
B. You can force the issue, but don't expect it to last for long. (Nevertheless, this may be necessary in the present circumstances.)
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows its subject sighing and weeping; but there will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Lamenting and sighing, floods of tears. No blame.
Blofeld: Sighs and lamentations, but no error. [We shall be afflicted by distress, but through no fault of our own.]
Liu: Lamentation and deep sighing, with tears from the eyes and dribbling from the nose. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Paying-tribute: sighs, tears, snot. The above not-yet quiet indeed.
Shaughnessy: Snuffling tears and snivel; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Sighing and weeping. No blame.
Wu: He is weeping and sniffling. No error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She sighs and weeps. She does not yet rest in her topmost position. Wilhelm/Baynes: He is not tranquil at the top. Blofeld: For this top line presages distress. Ritsema/Karcher: The above not-yet quiet indeed. Cleary (2): [This is because of] not being comfortable at the top. Wu: He is uneasy to be in the top position.
Legge: Line six is magnetic and at the extremity of the figure, yet still anxious for union. But she has no proper correlate, and all below are united in line five. Although she mourns her isolation, her good nature will preserve her from error and blame. Resting in the topmost position of the upper trigram of Frivolity she might be expected to abandon the cause of Contraction, but she cannot bear to do it.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man does not remain inactive in his high position but seeks alliance with another, who misjudges him. He is saddened by the rebuff. But the unity will come eventually as a result of his determination.
Wing: Any approach toward union will meet with rejection. This will bring you frustration because your intentions are misunderstood. Turn your attention inward instead, in order to penetrate the meaning of this disharmony. An inner accord with your Self will strengthen your position, and unity may become possible after all.
Editor: The image suggests the tension of an incomplete synthesis, or a failure due to lack of capacity rather than wrong intent. Ritsema/Karcher translate "snot" as: "YI: mucous from the nose; snivel, whine." The line can sometimes just mean that the Work is often unpleasant and difficult, and sorrow is a natural and not blameworthy response to it.
There is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without imperfection. To round itself out, life calls not for perfection but for completeness; and for this the "thorn in the flesh" is needed, the suffering of defects without which there is no progress and no ascent. Jung -- Psychology and Alchemy
A. Although the synthesis is incomplete, your goodwill preserves you through the crisis.
B. "You can't win 'em all" -- no need to whine about it.
Other Titles: Youthful Folly, The Symbol of Covering, Immaturity, Uncultivated Growth, Youth, Acquiring Experience, Youthful Ignorance, Enveloping, Folly, Darkness "Often the I Ching uses this hexagram to show us that we should not be asking this question." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Inexperience means progress and success. I do not seek the inexperienced youth, but he seeks me. When he shows the sincerity proper for divination, I instruct him. If he asks two or three times, that is troublesome, and I do not instruct the troublesome. Firm correctness brings advantage.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Youthful Folly has success. It is not I who seek the young fool; the young fool seeks me. At the first oracle I inform him. If he asks two or three times, it is importunity. If he importunes, I give him no information. Perseverance furthers.
Blofeld: Immaturity. Good fortune! I am not one to seek out uncultivated youths, but if such a youth seeks me out, I shall at first read and explain the omens. Yet should he ask me many times, just because of his importunity, I shall not explain anything more. The omen indicates a need for proper direction. [This hexagram suggests stubbornness (the upper trigram) issuing from the softness of the womb (the lower trigram). While it sometimes happens that youthful rashness succeeds where sober counsels fail, it is nevertheless the duty of the mature man to cultivate the minds of the young and to respond, within reason, to their requests for guidance. As an omen, this hexagram may be taken to imply a case in which a certain amount of rashness may lead to success, but in which older people are not absolved from the duty of guiding the young. There is also a suggestion that the Book of Change itself, though fully responsive to those who make the right approach, will not brook importunity in the form of trivial questions or of seeking to reverse its judgments by further questioning. Whether the omen may be taken to mean that we should go ahead with some rash scheme or that it is time for us to restrain someone's youthful rashness will depend upon the nature of the enquiry, the people concerned in it and the particular moving lines involved in the response.]
Liu: It is not I who seek him, the youth seeks me. The first time he asks, I answer; but if he asks again and again, it is annoyance: no answer. Benefit for continuance.
Ritsema/Karcher: Enveloping, Growing. In-no-way me seeking youthful Enveloping. Youthful Enveloping seeking me. The initial oracle-consulting notifying. Twice, three-times: obscuring. Obscuring, by-consequence not notifying. Harvesting Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of concealment and clouded awareness. It emphasizes that actively accepting this concealment in order to nurture growth is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Folly: Receipt; it is not we who seek youthful folly; youthful folly seeks us. The initial milfoil divination is auspicious, but if two or three times drawn out, being drawn out then it is not auspicious; beneficial to determine.
Cleary(1): In darkness is development. It is not that I seek naïve innocence; naïve innocence seeks me. The first augury informs; the second and third defile. Defilement does not inform. It is beneficial to be correct.
Cleary(2):Darkness. Getting through. It is not that I seek the ignorant; the ignorant seek me. The first pick informs, the second and third muddle. That which is muddled does not inform. Benefit is a matter of correctness.
Wu:Ignorance is pervasive. It is not that I ask the ignorant lad to come for instruction. It is that the ignorant lad comes to request my instruction. As in divination, he will be instructed the first time. If he asks the same question for the second and third times, he is disrespectful. Having been judged disrespectful, he will not be instructed again. It will be advantageous to be persevering.
The Image
Legge: A spring issuing from the mountain -- the image of Inexperience. The superior man, in accordance with this, nourishes his virtue and strives for resoluteness of conduct.
Wilhelm/Baynes: A spring wells up at the foot of the mountain: the image of Youth. Thus the superior man fosters his character by thoroughness in all that he does.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a watery hole at the foot of a mountain amidst uncultivated growth. The Superior Man by determined good conduct nourishes his virtue. [The second sentence is deduced from the first; both are suggested by the component trigrams.]
Liu: A spring comes out at the foot of the mountain; this symbolizes Youth. The superior man will cultivate his character through decisive action.
Ritsema/Karcher: below Mountain issuing-forth spring-water. Enveloping. A chun tzu uses fruiting movement to nurture actualizing-tao. [Actualize-tao: ... Ability to follow the course traced by the ongoing process of the cosmos ... Linked with acquire, TE: acquiring that which makes a being become what it is meant to be.]
Cleary (1): Under a mountain a spring is produced, in darkness. A superior person nurtures character with fruitful action.
Cleary (2): Under a mountain emerges a spring, in darkness. Leaders use effective action to nurture inner qualities.
Wu: A spring flows at the foot of a mountain; this is Ignorance. The jun zi resolves to taking steps to cultivate his virtue.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Inexperience shows the trigram of the Mountain above that of the Abyss. The perilous impasse suggested by these figures evokes the idea of inexperience. Progress and success are suggested because the action and development of the hexagram conform to the requirements of the time. When inexperience seeks wisdom, will responds to will. The oracle responds to sincerity because it has the qualities of the dynamic line in the central second place, but the oracle does not respond to ignorant importuning. The proper duty of a sage is to nourish the correct nature of the ignorant.
Legge: Difficulty shows us plants struggling within the earth, and Inexperiencesuggests the small and undeveloped sprouts which then appear upon its surface. This is an image of youthful ignorance, and the object of the hexagram is to show how those in authority should deal with it. The Judgment takes the form of the oracle's response to the questioner.
The upper trigram represents a frowning mountain which blocks the progress of the traveler. The lower trigram symbolizes a stream of water in a dangerous canyon, such as might be found at the foot of a mountain. The combination of these symbols suggests the perilous nature of ignorant inexperience.
The subject of line two represents the oracle, who demands sincerity from the unenlightened. It is his duty to evoke the innate "correct nature" hidden within the questioner, to bring this quality out and develop it. In regard to the Image, Chu Hsi says that "the water of a spring is sure to move on and gradually advance." This may serve as a symbol of the general process and progress of education.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Inexperience portrays the relationship between the ego and the Self as one of student to master. Communication via the oracle demands seriousness of purpose -- the Self refuses to pander to the ego's illusions.
The Superior Man furthers the Work by developing his will and intent.
Wilhelm's title for this hexagram is Youthful Folly, which tends to lend it a negative connotation that is not always strictly applicable. However, he is quick to point out that the title "should be understood to mean the immaturity of youth and its consequent lack of wisdom, rather than mere stupidity."
While the title of Inexperience avoids the negative connotation, it must be acknowledged that there is an aura of irritation in this hexagram which illustrates an uncomfortable truth about the relationship between the ego and the Self. The Self is an awesome archetype, and once one has established contact with him, he assumes a distinctly stern personality. The Self will not pander to the ego's illusions, and has no patience with anything but the unvarnished truth. Tact and patience are not among his attributes. Lao Tse describes him very accurately:
The Sage is unkind: He treats the people like sacrificial straw dogs.
Which is just the way it is. As a satellite of the Self, the ego-complex was not created just so that it could spend a lifetime indulging its fantasies. The Work must be undertaken, and the Self knows more than you do what remains to be done. Like any excellent teacher, he demands more of us than we think we have in us to give. This phenomenon of the tyrannical and often "unjust" Self has been noted in many times and places. Here is an example from Neo-Platonism:
What shall we say in regard to the question: "Why do the divinities that are invoked require the worshipper to be just, although they themselves when entreated consent to perform unjust acts?" In reply to this I am uncertain in respect to what is meant by "performing unjust acts," as the same definition may not appear right both to us and to the gods. We, on the one hand, looking to that which is least significant, consider the things that are present, the momentary life, what it is and how it originates. The beings superior to us, let me say, know for certain the whole life of the soul and all its former lives; and if they bring on a retribution from the supplication of those who invoke them, they do not increase it beyond what is just. On the contrary, they aim at the sins impressed upon the soul in former lifetimes, which men do not perceive, and so imagine that is unjust that they fall into the misfortunes which they suffer. Iamblichus -- The Egyptian Mysteries
A contemporary expression of this idea comes from consciousness researcher, John Lilly, famous for his work with dolphins and isolation tank experiments with psychedelic drugs:
Cosmic Love [e.g., the Spiritual Self] is absolutely Ruthless and Highly Indifferent: it teaches its lessons whether you like/dislike them or not. John Lilly
By definition, "the gods" (archetypes) are not human. Were it possible for them to evolve without human vessels in Spacetime, presumably we humans would not exist. It is these archetypes, in the guise of our complexes and limiting beliefs, that are being altered by the Work. Because the unconscious psyche is a multiverse, it is sometimes very difficult to differentiate just "who" is advising us, and the Self via the oracle, will occasionally test us for our ability to use intuitive common sense.
Which is to say: when the gods (or the "Self") become totally "unreasonable," we can only go along with them to the limit of our human understanding. Slavish obedience to all injunctions from the unconscious is to sell our souls outright to something that we don't understand. The renunciation of "common sense" is the renunciation of our most precious birthright.
On the other hand, to "disobey" at will is to put our souls at risk. This is one of the most painful of all dilemmas -- how far do we go in our obedience to unseen powers? Aspects of this problem have been called The Dark Night of the Soul -- an inner initiation, a trial by fire to see what we are really made of. There are times in the advanced course of the Work when one receives the strange insight that the Self actually wants us to disobey! This ordeal can only be lived through -- no one can advise you except your own sense of what is right for you at any given moment.
The most useful guideline that I have found is that the precepts of the Work (as found in the Perennial Philosophy) are consistent worldwide, and constitute a reliably moral structure for responsible choice. If the oracle seems to be telling you to do something contrary to your inner sense of right and wrong, contrary to your understanding of the precepts of the Work, then go with this intuition rather than the oracle. The Self, via the oracle, will test you in many ways to make you develop. (The ultimate goal is to become so infallibly intuitive that oracles become superfluous.)
The gods need our intelligent disobedience if they themselves are to evolve. It is in the stress between obedience and conscientious disobedience that growth takes place. In one sense, whatever choice you make, as long as it is conscious and you fully accept the consequences, is the right choice for you at that moment. We learn through our mistakes, and can never fail our lessons if we truly integrate the experience into our unfolding lives.
Confucius, one of the greatest teachers who ever lived, obviously took his teaching method from the Judgment of this hexagram:
The Master said:"I won't teach a man who is not anxious to learn, and will not explain to one who is not trying to make things clear to himself. And if I explain one- fourth and the man doesn't go back and reflect and think out the implications in the remaining three-fourths for himself, I won't bother to teach him again."
And so it is with the oracle (the Self) -- the deeper one gets involved in the Work, the more difficult the lessons become, so that one is always kept in a position of relative Inexperience. There are times, when a simple answer would suffice, that you will receive an ambiguous image, which (if you do three-fourths of the work), will lead you to a profound insight.